Persia, September 6, 1918 Dear Helen, Thanks ever so much for the University Supplement and your most interesting letter of July 11 tho I have read the supplement through, reading an article every day for two weeks in the afternoon at about tea time. The letter arrived day before yesterday. I enjoyed your description of the inside life of the hospital. It reminded me of those few days in the 'Golden Cage' in Bombay where I saw just a little of it. Those dances must be interesting. You ought to have some boys in khaki to make up a crowd. Do you dance? I have never had any desire to learn and have been at only one - at Durban. I hope you are absolutely in love with your work. Just think of tasting all the eats! Congratulations on your successful year in Toronto. It seems to me that it must have been much harder than your present duties. Well, I hope to go on leave in about three weeks. I did intend to stay in Bombay, but the S.M.O. says it would not be a sufficient change of climate, and recommends Lahore. They say it is the fashionable city of India at this time of year, so I ought to see social India at its best. I anticipate something like gay and glorious Durban. One of my Cambridge friends, who is commanding my old station, expects to go with me. He is a very decent sort of lad, which ought to make my leave all the more enjoyable. If you do not mind me imitating your letter, I will write something about the inside life of an Indian city. Europeans in India are a rather mad lot and always amuse me. Perhaps you will be interested in our diet. Yesterday I tasted the ninety-ninth variety of Gulf fish. Fish are the redeeming feature of our mess. At present we have fresh prawns, and oysters will soon be in season. Our bread comes warm from the bakery for breakfast. The mainstay of the kitchen is goat, which is prepared in about thirteen different ways including one kind of curry and three or four stews. I want a change from it in India. Ox-hump is the best meat dish there, while the beef of water-buffalo is as good as lamb. We get eggs for breakfast, but as they are 60% bad, sometimes one and sometimes none falls to one's lot. Some time I will tell you about the mess in general. It is just about like the dining - room on the Toronto Hamilton and Buffalo Railway. The only other news is about caravans. Tomorrow I shall be singing "The Camels Are Coming", and working for all I am worth to send them away again. My O.C. will be back soon, when there will be less work for me, and finally none after I have handed over and headed for India. Look out for a sea - sick letter next. I really wonder if I wrote since when I was on the boats. The world seems such a different place there. Yours sincerely, Austin.